


This is going to hurt

by StarryKnight09



Series: Febuwhump 2021 [15]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Broken Bones, FebuWhump2021, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Irondad, Loss of Powers, Not Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Compliant, Protective Tony Stark, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, Tony Stark Has A Heart
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-16
Updated: 2021-02-16
Packaged: 2021-03-18 21:47:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,933
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29496765
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StarryKnight09/pseuds/StarryKnight09
Summary: “You can do this.” He tried to convince himself.  “You can.  You do this all the time.  You’re Spiderman.”He took a deep breath.  In.  Out.“Ok.  Time to jump.” He said but his feet stayed firmly planted on the roof.Febuwhump Day 16: broken bones
Relationships: Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Series: Febuwhump 2021 [15]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2138670
Comments: 10
Kudos: 143





	This is going to hurt

“Come on Spiderman.” Peter mumbled as he stood on the ledge of the building. Heights hadn’t scared him ever since he’d gotten his powers, but standing up here now, if felt different. Even though he was in his old Spiderman suit with his webshooters attached to his wrists, it all took on a completely different feeling now that he’d lost his powers. A month ago he’d gotten hit by some weird ray gun and ever since then his powers had remained dormant. 

Tony kept trying to convince him they’d figure it out, and at first Peter had believed him, but now after a month of no progress, he was starting to lose hope. No matter how many times Tony had tried to tell him they just needed a little more time and Peter just needed to be patient, Peter couldn’t help but worry. What if they couldn’t figure it out? He couldn’t go back to being just Peter Parker. He couldn’t. Peter Parker was a loser. A nerdy nobody. He didn’t know what he’d do if he couldn’t be Spiderman.

Then this morning he’d had an idea. Tony was Ironman without any powers, so maybe he could still be Spiderman even without his powers. He wasn’t deluded. He knew he couldn’t go out and fight crime right now, but if he put in some crazy work and training, maybe someday he could get there. And maybe without his powers he could still swing. He just needed a little hope. And that’s why he was standing on top of a four story building staring down at the street. He’d been afraid to try any higher. Even this height made his heart pump with adrenaline.

“You can do this.” He tried to convince himself. “You can. You do this all the time. You’re Spiderman.”

He took a deep breath. In. Out.

“Ok. Time to jump.” He said but his feet stayed firmly planted on the roof. 

He took another calming breath. “Ok. On three. One. Two. Three.”

His feet remained stuck.

“Stop being a chicken.” He mumbled, annoyed at his cowardice. “Jump. Come on. Do it. Do it. Do it!”

He jumped. The fall that used to invigorate him just sent terror through his veins. He fumbled with his webshooter for a moment before his fingers found the button, sending a web over to the opposite building. It tightened and for a second and he was flying, swinging like he always used to as Spiderman. He got to the peak of his arc and released his web. He was actually doing it! 

Oh shit. He needed to shoot another web. His eyes searched frantically for the next best place to anchor it, but it was a lot harder without his super senses. As the space between himself and the ground rapidly decreased, h haphazardly shot a web out, hoping it would stick somewhere to stop his descent. It stuck. But he’d misjudged the placement of it, and instead of swinging into an open alley, he was headed straight toward the wall of the building.

_Oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit. This is going to hurt._ Was all he had time to think before he slammed into the brick. 

The absolute force of it rang through his entire body even into his teeth and made him lose his grip on the web. He floundered in midair before smacking into the concrete alleyway below, narrowly missing a dumpster.

He let out a whimper of a breath, his cheek pressed against the ground. Ouch. The understatement of the century. As Spiderman he could get hurt. The mutation didn’t make him invincible, but he didn’t realize until now that part of the mutation helped with his pain tolerance, because he couldn’t remember ever being in as much pain as Spiderman as he was in right now. And that was saying something because he’d been stabbed, concussed, shot, and broken bones before, and it’d never felt like this.

This was terrible all encompassing pain. He couldn’t even figure out where he hurt the most. Oh shit. He’d really messed up. Tears prickled in his eyes, but it hurt too much to cry so they just dripped silently out the corners.

He had no idea how long he laid there. Time lost all meaning as he focused solely on breathing through the agony. Breathe in. Out. In. Out. Eventually some semblance of rational thought returned. He didn’t know if the pain had gotten a tiny bit better or if he’d acclimated to the all consuming nature of it, but he finally had enough mental fortitude to start thinking about what he needed to do. As much as he wanted to lay there forever and not move, he knew he couldn’t. He needed help. He needed…his phone.

With the way he’d landed on his left side, his right arm was free with his hand resting mere inches from his pocket. One lucky break. He inched it into his pocket, scissoring his phone between two of his fingers, and pulled it out. There was no way he could lift it to his face, but he didn’t need to. He tapped the home button five times in rapid succession, the sequence Tony had programmed into it as an SOS call. Almost instantly he felt it start buzzing as Tony undoubtedly tried calling him. He didn’t answer. It stopped buzzing for a few seconds before it started up again. Tony was probably freaking out, and Peter hated that his worry wouldn’t be unfounded for once.

Peter let his eyes slide shut, not wanting to keep staring at the alley wall inches from his face. It wouldn’t be long now. Tony would be appropriately panicked out by now, which meant he’d take the suit, and since he lived in the city, having moved back with Morgan and Pepper after the Thanos thing, it should be only a few minutes until he arrived.

Even though he’d been expecting it, the clang of Ironman landing next to his crumpled form still surprised him. Usually he would’ve heard him coming from miles away. He didn’t know if he’d ever get used to not having his super senses.

“Peter!” Tony’s fear seeped into his voice.

Peter groaned so the man would at least know he was conscious.

Tony knelt down next to him and Peter cracked his eyes open to catch the man’s hand hovering inches above his shoulder before abandoning the idea of touching him. “Shit kid. What were you—”

Tony stopped and frowned, obviously noticing that he had on his old Spiderman suit because the man gently pulled his mask off. A second later Peter could see it in his eyes. The exact moment Tony realized what must’ve happened. What Peter had been doing. Why he was wearing his old suit. The man’s eyes widened in shocked disbelief before he looked up, taking in how far Peter must’ve fallen.

“I’m sorry.” He rasped out. 

“Don’t…don’t move kid.” Tony said instead of chewing him out like he’d expected.

He hummed in acknowledgement.

“FRIDAY scan him and call for an emergency medivac.”

Peter didn’t hear her response or the outcome of her scan, the AI probably feeding the information directly into Tony’s ear.

“It really hurts.” He mumbled. “It’s never hurt like this before.”

“I know but it’s going to be ok. Just hang in there. The med team will be here soon and we’ll get you back to the compound.” Tony tried to reassure him, but Peter could hear the anxiety in his tone.

“I’m sorry.” He repeated, more tears sliding down his cheeks. “It was…it was stupid. I don’t know what I was thinking.”

“It’s ok.” Tony comforted, lightly brushing the tears off his cheeks. “We’ll, uh, we’ll talk about it later. Just try to concentrate on something else.”

He tried to but thinking about anything besides the pain was near impossible. He whimpered.

“It’s all right.” Tony tried to soothe him. “Here. Squeeze my hand.” Tony put his hand in Peter’s and Peter gave it a light squeeze, surprised it didn’t make anything hurt worse, and it almost did help as something to focus on. Another wave of pain crashed over him and he gripped it harder, not having to worry about squeezing too hard because his super strength was gone. He let his entire world shrink down to holding Tony’s hand and concentrating on breathing as Tony continued to speak softly to him in reassurance. 

When the medivac team finally arrived, Peter barely noticed them buzzing around him until they put a neck brace on him and rolled him onto a backboard. He scrunched his eyes closed and grit his teeth as they strapped him down. Man, that had hurt, and the new position left him feeling claustrophobic, especially when they placed an oxygen mask over his face. He frowned, not sure how else to show his displeasure. If he opened his mouth to try to say something, he worried he might scream.

Something poked him in his arm, barely noticeable in comparison to all the pain emitting from the rest of his body. A few seconds later he felt a burning sensation as they injected something into the IV they’d placed, and the pain receded almost instantaneously, his body slackening in relief.

“Better?” Tony asked, still hovering next to him.

Peter hummed his appreciation, eyes slipping closed. Now that the pain had stopped assaulting him, he was exhausted. He vaguely registered the medics lifting him and then they were moving toward something. Something annoyingly loud.

“Just a short helicopter ride and we’ll be at the compound.” Tony said and Peter realized all the noise was from the rotating blades of the helicopter as it waited in the middle of the street. That had to be all kinds of illegal. But he doubted Tony cared. Peter didn’t care either. Of all the things he’d done, he’d never actually ridden in a helicopter before. They loaded him in, Tony taking a seat right beside him and slipping his hand back in Peter’s as soon as they were settled.

Peter gave it a squeeze, determined to stay awake to experience the helicopter ride, but the painkillers pulled him down and he faded out before they even took off.

Awareness came. And went. Came back. And left again. Lapping at him like gentle waves. Until suddenly it was just there.

He opened his eyes and instantly recognized the medbay since he’d spent more than his fair share of time there. The lights were dimmed to their lowest setting so it must be nighttime. Peter took a moment to take stock of himself. He hurt, but in that detached way that signaled he was on some heavy duty painkillers. He glanced down at his legs. The right one was in a cast from his foot all the way up to his hip and propped up on a plethora of pillows. Peter wiggled his toes and let out a sigh of relief when they moved. Thank god. He continued to peruse the rest of his body. He laid shirtless so he could see all the angry bruises covering the entire left side of his chest. Ouch. His left arm was casted up to his armpit and in a sling, resting on its own pillow so it didn’t touch his bruised left side. He recognized the tickle in his nose as an oxygen cannula. Man. He’d really messed himself up. 

Regret settled in and he closed his eyes with a sigh before opening them again a few seconds later. As he turned his head, looking for a clock, his eyes settled on a figure slumped in a chair next to his bed. Everything was blurry without his glasses, but he easily recognized the man without them. Tony. His mentor’s head was craned sideways, practically resting on his shoulder, fast asleep. Peter winced in sympathy. That position looked really uncomfortable.

“Hey.” He said, deciding to wake him up. Maybe if he saw Peter was awake and doing fine, he’d be ok with leaving to sleep in an actual bed.

Tony startled at the noise, straightening up and grabbing at his neck with a grimace before freezing when he noticed Peter was awake and watching him.

“Pete?” He whispered, leaning forward. “You awake?”

“Yeah.”

“How’s the pain?”

“It’s ok.” He didn’t know if that’d hold true if he tried moving, but as long as he laid still it was fine.

“Good.” Tony nodded as he searched the sheets for something. He found it and placed the plastic cylinder with a button on top in Peter’s hand. “If it starts to hurt you push this button, ok?”

He nodded, licking his lips, before asking, “How bad is it?”

Tony ran a hand through his hair and sat back in his chair with a sigh. “You’re going to live, but you broke six of your ribs on your left side, your left wrist, arm, and collarbone, and every bone in your right leg. They had to put a rod in it.”

“Ouch.” He mumbled.

“There was some internal bleeding too, but it stopped on its own, so you shouldn’t need surgery for it.”

Peter swallowed hard. “Sounds serious.”

“That’s an understatement.” Tony said, voice taking on a slightly angry edge. “Do you know how incredibly lucky you are?”

“Don’t really feel lucky.” He huffed. Oops. He hadn’t really meant to say that. It’d just slipped out. He was definitely on some good drugs.

“Well you are.” Tony shot him a disapproving look. “You’re going to be able to walk away from this when you just as easily could’ve died.”

He winced. “I’m sorry Tony.”

Tony let out a heavy sigh before asking almost desperately, “What were you thinking?”

Oh. So they were going to talk about it. He supposed that made sense, but he didn’t think the timing was exactly fair since he had a hard time censoring himself when he was high on painkillers. And Tony knew it.

“I just…” He fought the urge to fidget knowing it would probably hurt. “I just wanted to prove that I could still be Spiderman even without my powers.”

“Kid…” Peter hated how torn up Tony sounded.

“I know it was stupid.” He added, not wanting to face Tony’s pity. “I know. I guess I just thought if I could at least still swing around then maybe Spiderman wasn’t really gone for good. But obviously I can’t even do that…”

“Pete, how many times do I have to tell you Spiderman’s not gone? He’s just on a hiatus.” Tony said, voice softening.

“It’s been over a month.” Peter argued. “My powers aren’t coming back.”

“They will.” Tony said and Peter hated how certain he sounded when Peter felt anything but. “Your mutation is still there. Your powers are still there. We just need to get rid of whatever’s suppressing them, and Bruce is really close. He thinks he’ll have it figured out in the next week or so.”

“Really?” He asked tentatively, afraid to hope.

“Really.” Tony reached out to squeeze his good hand. “You just need to be patient a little longer, but you’ll be back to swinging in no time. Well, after you heal from all this. Hopefully we can get your powers back sooner rather than later so you don’t have to be laid up for too long.”

“Are you sure?” He still couldn’t believe it.

“Of course I’m sure. Would I lie to you about this?”

“No.” Peter knew he wouldn’t.

“Then trust me. We’re going to get you your powers back.”

Peter sighed in relief. “Thank god. You have no idea how scared I was that I was going to have to go back to being just stupid Peter Parker.”

“Hey.” Tony chastised, giving his hand another squeeze. “I think Peter Parker’s pretty great.”

“Not like Spiderman.” 

“No, you’re right. He’s not.” Tony agreed and Peter’s heart fell for a second before Tony added, “He’s better.”

The corner of his mouth tugged up in a smile. “Thanks.”

“I’m not saying anything that isn’t true.” Tony shrugged. “Now, if I were you, I’d try to get some sleep because you’re going to need all your energy to explain yourself to your scary aunt tomorrow.”

He groaned. “She’s here? You told her?”

“Of course I told her. You jumped off a four story building and almost broke every bone in your body!”

Peter winced.

“She was here sitting with you until I sent her to bed a few hours ago.”

“She’s going to kill me.”

“Well she’s definitely not happy. She’s got a nice lecture all prepared. She practiced it on me. It’s a doozy.”

Peter groaned again.

“So, as I was saying,” Tony continued as he pulled the covers up to his shoulders, “you should rest up tonight because you’re going to need all your strength tomorrow.”

Tony wasn’t wrong, and Peter was tired. Their short conversation had sapped his energy. His eyes slipped closed for a second before he opened them again, remembering something. “Hey Tony?”

“Hm?” Tony looked up from where he’d already been typing away at something on his phone.

“You don’t have to stay. You can go sleep in your own bed if you want. I’ll be all right.” He told him before closing his eyes again.

Instead of walking out, Tony smoothed down his blankets and ran a hand over his hair. “I’m staying kid. Get some sleep.”

Peter had to work to keep the smile off his face as he did exactly that.

**Author's Note:**

> I've always wanted to explore the whole Peter Parker losing his powers thing, so I used today's prompt to do just that. Please forgive any mistakes! I've gone from going through/editing these one shots three times, to twice, to just once before posting, otherwise I have no time in the day to write the next day's prompt. Once Febuwhump's over I'm going to try to go through them all again and fix them up. Thanks for reading!
> 
> Come hit me up on [Tumblr!](https://starryknight09.tumblr.com/)


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